In this discussion, I summarize what the first half of this year’s blogging has been about. What the experience has contained and what lessons have been learned on my part and what ideas are to come.

There are a dozen reasons why I started this blog. At first, it was all about putting tabs on important moments in my life. The blog manifested itself within experiences I went through. Looked at reviewing different places I had seen and been to. Talked about the international community and some of the atrocities being committed against people.

It talked about moments of inhumanity when everything was bad about our world, especially the economy. I hated the economy. The attitude of arbitrary leaders to treat people like dirt, raise the rate of inflation, flat-lined the raising of wages. Create laws to scare people away from misbehaving. They call it freedom but I saw institutional stereotyping/racism/fascism/sexism and general dickheadedness.

Yes… The blog was a ranting platform.

The blog also discussed my personal hobbies and interests like architecture and cycling. It also talked about what it’s like to live in Wellington. The various opportunities I was able to seize like becoming a youth advocate or helping to build a new children’s ministry. Becoming a voice for other young people in a non-governmental agency.

We shared a heck of a lot of memories on the blog. Like moving cities, studying at university, relationship melt downs, going to church, doing a charity bike ride across half the country, flatmate politics.

Then it became more about understanding how I work as an individual. What peeved me off about things I did. What frustrated me about things other people did, how I responded to those negative emotions, how to balance those out with positive reflections.

Then the blog became about what’s real and authentic about people. It became about looking for the balance in actions, the way people were and how I shaped up against them. How others could learn from the examples I could set and vice versa.

it evolved into this forum of self-reflection, a place where I could go and vent about myself, what I wasn’t doing, what I was doing really well. It was almost a celebratory place.

But it’s time to change.

The next step for me is to start focusing more about what other people think. There’s a kind of evolutionary thing about starting with one blog and moving into two. Like a tree in some ways, I guess. The idea is to start getting more people into the flow of building their blog alongside this one. TO encourage others to participate in the conversations.

WHAT WE SEE is the new outlet for other people to share what they feel about various topics. The focus is to be drawn on what makes people tick. The focus will be on character building and what people think is important to them and their freedom. What they know from their experience is important to them and could never be unhinged by anything that happens in their life.

This space needs to be used to help people re-motivate themselves and reconnect with their sense of belonging or Turangawaewae. To establish their foundation and find their roots again, be a bit more centered. The beauty about asking people what they find most important is knowing that no one answer is ever going to be the same.

The beauty of WHAT WE SEE is that it is a community space that I hope will develop over spring to become this blossoming embodiment of commune and respect.Over the next three months, I will be trialing this product to see how it can manifest itself best within other peoples time frames as well as building relationships with others.

The blog is only a vehicle. The blog is only the vehicle on which messages can be delivered to other people. It’s like a tree bearing fruit. But the fruit is not for the tree (Because since when does a tree eat an apple). The fruit is for other people to enjoy and read. To take away it’s wisdom and knowledge to empower others to do the same and to be inspired to create change where possible.

It’s all a bit deep. But why is the blog changing?

The point in the changing of seasons is to respect that we have been through a season. Like everything when seasons change we need to adapt and create new opportunities. Time to shed some fur and begin to evolve into something else that is more relevant.

The blog is adapting by changing up a gear. Removing some of the temporary stilts used to keep the tree growing upwards instead of outwards. But now it’s time to start growing upwards without the confines of being stuck in my own space writing about my own life and it’s time to start sharing the microphone.

I would like the blog to start talking about important issues in New Zealand that so many people face every day. That we could create a narrative to help other people in our community in need of advice, with personal stories that we are willing to share.

What would I like to talk about?

The first thing I want to focus on is introducing the community. A quick way to do this is by asking some big questions like, “What is the most important thing in your life on one page.” Other questions might be,” What are three things in life that you are extremely grateful for.” By asking a series of questions we can introduce the people who are writing in. By doing so we are introducing a community of people.

I would like to talk about teen suicide in New Zealand and I would like to highlight mental health in New Zealand also. It would mean a lot to me if the blog would grow into this forest of trees where everyone is given space to grow and develop their own sense of identity and freedom. By sharing their opinions on these matters would in many ways grow the tree into this unbreakable structure that would encourage others to speak up as well.

The blog would also focus on positive things in our community that people are doing. This to balance the bad weather and acknowledging that we accept there have been many struggles through the coolness of winter but now that we have changed seasons we can begin to grow in the warmth of society and offer support to others who haven’t made it through the storm unscathed.

How are we going to do this?

I want to start growing larger than imaginable. I want the blog to start to draw strength from the community it already lives in. It’s no longer about me and my snobby opinions but it’s about you, yes you.

It’s going to take a lot of people to be loud and consistent. I am so excited to see this too. So if you are out there, and you do want to be involved, then BE INVOLVED. Get in touch, send me an email: manawilliams@ymail.com (Ymail = Yahoo Mail). Get connected through various social media platforms, just do. Don’t even think about leaving this sloppy discussion without checking in, you’ve already got this far so you may as well!

It’s going to take a small army of people to keep this alive but I’m praying for it to stand up and be lifted high. So I ask you wherever you are, to be apart of this cool moment, and be apart of it!

AMAZING

Once again, we reach a new chapter in the blog and I’m glad to announce that I will continue to blog every now and again, probably just to rant about something. But there is lots of work that we need to get involved with to try and help the vulnerable young people in our country. We need to be the voice in the dark that steps in and says you’re not alone. We need to be the ones to grow community so that they know they can be nurtured from the fruit we produce for them to sustain them.